Social behaviours predict vocal turn-taking in common marmosets

Abstract

Human conversation depends on the continuous integration of vocal exchanges with visual and spatial cues, yet the evolutionary origins of this multimodal coordination remain poorly understood. Although vocal turn-taking has been documented across many animal species, studies have largely examined vocal exchanges in isolation from the accompanying social dynamics. Using acoustic localization and 3D pose tracking in freely interacting marmoset pairs, we simultaneously quantified vocal behaviour and social interactions during natural communication. We found that vocal turn-taking is dependent on distinct multimodal behavioural states defined by head orientation, spatial proximity, and ongoing social interaction. While call features did not reliably predict turn-taking, these behavioural dynamics predicted whether vocal exchanges developed into turn-taking or terminated after isolated calls. Our findings reveal that primate vocal communication is fundamentally organized by multimodal behavioural coordination rather than by vocal signals alone, providing an evolutionary framework for understanding the origins of human conversation.